


Helmsman

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alien Invasion, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Blood Loss, Body Horror, Comatose Peter, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hospitalization, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Peter, Hurt Peter Parker, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Life drainage, Medical Procedures, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, POV Tony Stark, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:47:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26940865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Peter's extraordinary strength keeps him out of trouble, it *does not* make him a candidate for a "human battery" aboard an alien ship.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Kudos: 25





	Helmsman

It isn't like Tony expects. It's just how his closest friends told him it would be, but it isn't like he expects. He laughs. Each chuckle is more uncomfortable than sleeping on a bed of nails. The people who knew the least about the aliens and the least about Peter were right. He was going to have to be dragged out of their claws, comatose, then given to medical immediately.

His shock needed to hold off for a moment. Peter looked bad.

Worse than that actually. "Wires" looking like the stringed muscle of a human being embedded his skin. His eyes were open and vacant, his pupils fading white. A helmet weighed down his neck to a dangerously low "slack."

Tony tried **not** to analyze him because what mattered in a rescue, any rescue, especially of a loved one, was really just the victim's position. 

And he was in the dead center of the room, fittingly. Not on the floor, but the actual middle where the ship had a metal ramp likely for maintenance purposes. Pink tendrils stretched him vertically by pulling his arms over his head. 

Tony walked across it, realizing he was too far away to be useful. No new elements appeared in the fuchsia room as he went. None. Just the kid starting to mutter: _"They need more power... they need more power..."_ and the wires, now he was sure they were wires, pulling at his skin. 

They didn't take it, but it definately became loose as his _insides_ were stolen.

Tony swore if he saw one more demonstration of these alien fucks' sick technology, he was going to eradicate their entire race. This further complicated the question of how to remove Peter. Some serious forces were at play with those wires which a lesser alcoholic wouldn't dare to mess with.

On a metal box cut into the railing were circuit breakers and foreign labels. It feigned in similarity to the Chitauri language so Tony asked Friday to take a screenshot and process the words in the background.

As he waited, he slid his armored hand over Peter's cheek, swearing in Russian like Natasha. "Wake up, kid. Don't let me down. I promised everyone you were gonna be drop kicking these Na'vian freaks left, right, and center before we came to save you." 

He bet he looked real stupid now. He should've known what it was actually like to have a child. If you failed to protect them once, that was it.

"2 likely translations available," Friday called. Tony read the messages on screen. 

Disburden.  
Ascendancy.

...

"Fri, I don't understand any of those commands."

"Shall I offer a list of synonyms? Warning, meaning may be miscontrued or lost."

His eyes rolled off his face and he thought to himself about the meaning of "disburden." To take away a burden... to release something maybe? It was his best shot though it was still none better than shooting an arrow in the dark. 

After pulling "disburden", Peter dropped from the cables. It was like they wanted to spit him out, but he had to remind himself they _probably_ weren't alive. Tony tucked him against his chest and started running to the docks, where Quill's jet had intercepted the much larger ship an hour ago.

The walls were plastered with the alien's rainbow blood and faceless voices screamed down the hall. He didn't- he wasn't worried about them. He continued to pull the kid around, shitting himself over what he might accidentally do to his neck. His pulse was so fluttery. His eyes were so sleepy. He was so close...

Tony stepped on to the docks and yelled for help. It came running in the form of Drax, who scooped him up and placed him on a stretcher. This was then pushed through the Milano with care by the whole team.

They approached true Earth in no less than 2 hours, 2 miserable hours. His body didn't move or look relaxed. His face felt too warm for any child no matter how feverish, and his scars were melting together. Tony just barely managed to control his nerves from taking the helm and hyper driving to Helen Cho.

At the avenger's tower, which they arrived at as scheduled, he was taken in on the same stretcher. His body was lost in a sea of readied nurses. Tony knew they were smarter than him sometimes. One barked orders that the others had seemingly forgotten, in order to stare at the devastating lifeform.

For hours, visions plagued Tony's mind of what the surgeons were doing. Every second it lasted he saw another surture hit near his heart like a movie. Then...

"Odds are 50/50, but he's reached maximum stability."

"What?" He said, feeling time stop its 100 meter sprint.

"There's nothing left we can do but pray... it's the machines he's hooked up to that will do most of the work."

"Get him in a room where I can visit him with his aunt," he tells her.

"Yessir."

Of course he got what he asked for. He sat beside Peter on his new bed and watched the tubes in his wrist, weary they would bite like snakes. He tried not to think about anything.

His memories were so awful, the worst. He had boasted to all his friends after failing to save Peter the first time that the kid would practically save himself. He never wanted to stop looking for him, but he knew the kid would be alright. He pictured that when the avengers found the ship, they'd also find him having a tea party at a small rotound table, speaking the alien's language. That was so in Peter's nature.

Like breathing. Nature failed often. He looked again at the machinery and wondered if the kid would freak out seeing it because... It was a cruel thought.

"Stay with me. I don't want to be alone..." the man begged, feeling his protégé lose the excessive heat quickly.

**Author's Note:**

> ten points to the house who sees right through my bullshit and knows which character this was originally written for (i didnt think they were popular enough on ao3 :(( luckily spider-man is still one of my favorites and this was super fun to write!) ive only made 2 fanfics so far and all criticism is appreciated. im not striving to be a best selling author or anything, but i want to make people happy.


End file.
